There were 7 pancake recipes left from Natalie, Janetha, Jodie, my Aunt Carol (my mom’s recipe that I know), Emily N, Naomi and Mel. Over the next few weeks my goal is try to each of those recipes so I’ll be posting what I thought of each I go along. I love pancakes so this is going to be fun!

Back when I held the battle of the blenders, I kind of had a blender in mind and the response about the blenders confirmed my first choice.

I went ahead with the Magic Bullet and let me tell you – it has been amazing.

CSN allowed me to pick a product to try out so that is where my Magic Bullet came from. They sell kitchen tables, kitchen gadgets, outdoor items and really anything you can think of. I was excited to pick an item to review and super happy to see it in their personal blender selection.

The Magic Bullet came with 6 different cups (1 large, 1 small and 4 large travel cups), 2 blades, a shaker top, 2 sealable tops and base that plugs in.

My favorite part about the Magic Bullet is that it takes up so little space and is easy to clean. My regular blender is pretty big and works great, but it always seemed like such a hassle to get it out of the cupboard, use it then clean it. With the Magic Bullet I can actually use it every day if I want to because the blades are quick to hand wash and the cups I just throw in the dish washer. If the one I used isn’t clean, I just choose from another one of the six I have.

Of course I have been making a ton of smoothies with it, but I have used it for other things too. Pancakes have become even quicker in the morning now.

Combine all ingredients in a large magic bullet cup (or your blender or food processor). Pulse until all ingredients are combined.

Heat your skillet to medium heat and coat with olive oil spray. After letting the mixture sit and thicken for 5 minutes, pour the batter into pancakes (about 1/4 – 1/3 cup) 3 or 4 at a time. Let it cook on one side for a few minutes until you see bubbles forming on the top. Flip and cook on the other side for a few minutes then repeat with remaining mixture. You should end with 8 pancakes.

Top with maple syrup if you want, or apple sauce and almond butter like I did!

I can probably count the times tofu has passed my lips. In my banana blueberry tofu muffins you would never know that it existed. Instead of a heavy creamy white sauce silken tofu does the trick with a few other ingredients.

However, a few months ago my tofu attempt was less than perfect. Actually it was pretty nasty to me and I couldn’t even eat it. So when TofuXpress was willing to have me review their product I was interested but then nervous at the same time. I took on the challenge, picked up a block of firm tofu and got to work thinking.

I didn’t really know what to do with it. I’ve seen quite a few curry recipes that utilize tofu but Jacob is never a fan when curry is used in a dish so that idea went off the table.

With only a smidgen of thought about what I would make I put the TofuXpress to work. Only 1 hours is needed to press the excess liquid out of the tofu, but more time is okay too. I ended up leaving my tofu in the press for about 34 hours. It took me that long to decide (and get the courage) to make a simple dish for dinner.

I chose to make pasta with a tomato sauce and sauted tofu. Simple right? Actually it was. For the tomato sauce I took 1 can of diced tomatoes, a sweet onion from our garden, 3 cloves of garlic, 2 kale leaves, 2 swiss chard leaves and 2 other leaves that sort of looked like parsley but were not (they came from my CSA so I wasn’t sure what it was). Along with some other spices, seasonings and tomato paste I simmered this for about 15 minutes then pureed it in the food processor. Once that was finished I cooked the whole wheat pasta and added it to the sauce. For the tofu I heated a skillet with some olive oil on med-high heat. After removing the tofu from the press I sliced it and put it in the heated skillet.

After a few minutes of flipping the pieces around I seasoned with some sea salt, pepper and basil. Once all sides were golden brown I added 1 tsp tomato paste that had been watered down with about 1 tbsp water. The tofu was done and ready to eat.

I was actually pretty surprised that I enjoyed it and went back for another piece of tofu once I finished my bowl of pasta + sauce, mozzarella and tofu. Jacob even said he would eat it again. Score!

I believe my fear of eating tofu may be gone now. I think the spongy tofu experience I had a few months ago will still be in the back of my mind but hopefully this one takes its place soon enough.

I’m excited to use the TofuXpress for other things like frozen spinach. I am never good about squeezing all of the excess liquid out by hand.

Battle of the Blenders

CSN, an online store selling almost anything your little heart desires from dining room items, to kitchen gadgets and even shoes recently contact me to review one of their product – my choice! I need some helping choosing the product though. Maybe some of you have these individual blenders yourself and can give me your likes and dislikes about them.